<span>: The Content Span element

The <span> HTML element is a generic inline container for phrasing content, which does not inherently represent anything. It can be used to group elements for styling purposes (using the class or id attributes), or because they share attribute values, such as lang. It should be used only when no other semantic element is appropriate. <span> is very much like a <div> element, but <div> is a block-level element whereas a <span> is an inline-level element.

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Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Example

Example 1

HTML

html

<p><span>Some text</span></p>

Result

Example 2

HTML

html

<li>
  <span>
    <a href="portfolio.html" target="_blank">See my portfolio</a>
  </span>
</li>

CSS

css

li span {
  background: gold;
}

Result

Technical summary

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content, or any element that accepts flow content.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	`HTMLSpanElement`

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard # the-span-element

Browser compatibility

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